


Things You Said in the Backyard at Night

by bxdhabits



Category: The X-Files, The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998), The X-Files: I Want To Believe (2008)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, MSR, Taking place after season 9
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 12:28:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8372269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bxdhabits/pseuds/bxdhabits
Summary: Mulder and Scully reflect under the stars





	

“You know, you spend so much time with you head in the clouds, you’d of thought you would have learnt how to use a telescope,” Scully said, the trench coat she had borrowed without asking may have been dragging along the ground behind her like a bridal gown, but it did nothing to warm her from the frosty, night time temperatures of November.  
“You don’t use a telescope with its cloudy,” Mulder replied without missing a beat from his crouched position on the ground, “How would we see the stars that way?”  
She rolled her eyes.

She still wasn’t one hundred percent sure how he had managed to coax her out of their exquisitely warm and cosy bed at one thirty in the morning and shuffle to the bottom of their garden in their pyjamas, with a telescope neither of them had touched or quite knew where it came from and nothing else. She knew it had something with how his low rumble of pillow talk had escalated into an animated blur of words about stars and constellations that had spouted from almost nothing; and how even though it was pitch black in their bedroom, she could practically feel his eyes widening when he thought aloud about the prospect of stargazing with her and when he began to convince her that it would be worth being exhausted at the morning to do this. She also knew a massive part of it was how surprisingly quick she could feel her heart swell at the hint of the excitement in his voice, something she was so used to hearing back in the day was now something she barely even recognised. She had missed that part of him more than she had even realised, it was almost definitely worth the ridiculous temperatures. 

Mulder fumbled around with the telescope parts a while longer, wearing nothing but socks and sweatpants that he had grabbed carelessly from the bedroom floor as well as the faded Knicks t-shirt he had already been wearing. He didn’t notice the brisk, icy breeze that produced goose bumps on his whitening arms or how the feeling was slowly leaving his fingers, or how Scully’s hands had started rubbing small, warm circles on his arched back to stop it from aching.   
“I’ve decided,” Mulder stood up straight, staring begrudgingly at the half built contraption, “That this telescope is broken.”  
“Oh really?” She scoffed, “And this would be through no fault of yours, I presume?”  
“Precisely,” A grin escaped across his lips as he looked down at her, wrapped up like that in his coat that positively swamped her whilst her legs were covered by florally patterned pyjama bottoms. Even in the cold and the dark and even with those slightly condescending eyes, she was simply radiant.  
“I have another proposal though,” His grin widened.  
“I don’t suppose it involves being warm and indoors and unconscious?” She felt his large, freezing arm rest across her shoulders the second she uttered the word ‘warm’ and smiled.  
“No, it’s better than that,” He whispered, linking his fingers between hers and leading her across the back yard. 

“At least put more clothes on,” Scully sighed, as Mulder stopped walking in a space that looked exactly the same as where they were standing before, “Your hands are freezing.”  
“I’m fine,” He brushed off her mild concern in usual fashion and that itself was comfort enough for her, “Here is perfect.”  
“For…?”  
“Well, I don’t know about you, but when I went camping as a kid there was nothing to do at night except look at the sky. Who needs a telescope to do that? Only cheaters,” He smiled again, and for the first time in months it reached his eyes, “There’s much less foliage here so we can see more.”

He looked and sounded so innocent in that moment that Scully was less than surprised to find her arms wrapping themselves around his waist and drawing herself so close to his chest that he could rest his chin on the top of his head. Sometimes, after months of arguments and tears, of silences and sleeping in separate rooms, of despair and hopeless it was the little things – like standing intertwined at 2AM in the cold – that got them through in the end.

They eventually ended up sharing the trench coat, with Mulder draping it around his shoulders and then engulfing Scully in the rest of it whilst she stood directing in front with his arms wrapped around her waist, allowing their joined body heat to annihilate the winter weather. Their eyes mostly stayed locked on the sky, scanning for patterns and stories; but every now and again they would look at one another and feel relief at the look of pure interest and delight as the other completely lost themselves in the sky, happy that for a few hours this was all that needed to matter.

She listened to his ramblings on topics she already knew about, the stories behind the names of constellations that she had learnt about as a child, but she didn’t stop him or interrupt. Years ago, she saw this trait of his patronising and annoying and Mulder knew it, he’d wind her up and she’d snap at him and they would argue, but not tonight. Scully now realised that Mulder just wanted to share with her, share something that reminded him of happier times, something that was close to him and she let him. She wondered how much time they could have saved if they had just learned to listen to each other, rather than simply waiting for the other to stop talking so that they could speak.

Eventually, the stars faded to nothing as the sun began to peak over their house and they ran out of things to say.   
Scully twisted around in Mulder’s arms and exhaustingly rested her head in his cheat, “We have work in three hours.”  
“I know,” He whispered into her hair, “I don’t know where the time went.”  
“Come on,” She sighed, taking both of his large hands in her own tiny ones, “We may be exhausted but at least we can be warm.”  
Mulder gently tugged her arms to draw her close again, before bending down slightly to place his lips on hers. It wasn’t like they didn’t kiss anymore, but when they did it was always intense and hard and angry. It was used to stop arguments or to lead up to the rough, anger induced sex they had gotten so used to having and so they both associated kissing as a chore, something they had to do to get to something else. It was never soft or gentle or spontaneous, it was never like this anymore.

She cupped his jaw to deepen the kiss slightly, reassuring him that it was okay to allow his tongue to roam around her mouth whilst his thumbs caressed her waist, but Mulder drew away before things could escalate further. He knew that things were fragile, even if Scully didn’t think he did; he knew that little steps were necessary if he wanted to win back her trust - a battle he was more than ready to fight for. Instead, he rested his forehead on hers and sighed, “I’m glad I’m exhausted, I’m glad I’m fucking freezing and I’m glad I’m not get any work done today at all. At least this time, it’s with you.”  
“I love you,” Scully breathed in return; for the first time in months she had shattered all the doubt and demons that run through Mulder’s mind, as only she knew how to.  
“I love you too, Scully.”

They headed back inside. Back to reality. Back to work.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first MSR fic that I have uploaded....so if its terrible.......that might be why  
> Taking place shortly after Mulder returns (my headcanon for this fic is that theyre trying to make a relationship work but are struggling - Scully in particular, I wasn't sure how obvious that was)  
> My tumblr is plansnordisguises.tumblr.com if anybody is remotely interested. Either way, thank you for reading!


End file.
